Abolishment Of Office Of State-Federal Relations Possible

It hasn’t been flashed about much in the Texas Blogsphere today, with the big news being the DeLay decision out of Judge Sam Sparks’ court in Austin, but the staff of the Sunset Advisory Commission today issued a recommendation to close the Office of State-Federal Relations (report here).

Why is this important? Because it is a wholesale endorsement of wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to hire Tom DeLay-cronies to do the jobs our Congressmen and Senators are already doing in Washington, D.C.

If you are scratching your head and wondering “What the Hell?” read on.

The Office of State-Federal Relations is designed to give the state a unified voice in Washington, D.C. In the past the Office of State-Federal Relations has done this without paying millions of dollars to outside lobbyists.

However, under the control of Governor Rick Perry and his cronies, the OSFR hired high-priced lobbyists to essentially do its job and the jobs of our elected officials.

The Sunset Advisory Commission staff’s report declares that the Office of State-Federal Relations did not have the authority to hire the lobbyists:

The Office lacks specific authority and guidelines for contracting with government relations consultants on the federal level.

However, in some unexpected bureaucratic double-speak, Sunset staff then went on to say that, in spite of the agency not having the specific authority to hire lobbyists, there was really nothing wrong with hiring the hired guns:

Many people, including elected officials and the media, have questioned the role government relations consultants, or lobbyists, play in the federal arena. The conduct of some consultants has led to a national discussion about the influence and power lobbyists have on Capitol Hill. Fueled by this debate, the legality of the State-Fed Office’s practice of hiring outside consultants to help lobby Congress on the State’s behalf, as well as the way in which the Office acquires and manages these contracts, has also been called into question.
Sunset staff examined the Office’s authority to enter into such contracts and found that, while not specifically authorized, nothing in Texas law prohibits the Office from contracting with consultants to lobby Congress. Texas law does prohibit state agencies from lobbying the Texas Legislature or hiring a person required to register within the state as a lobbyist. Nothing in Texas law prohibits the State-Fed Office from contracting with consultants to lobby Congress.

Excuse me, what? “Not specifically authorized,” but nothing in Texas law “prohibits…contracting with consultants?” As a general rule with state agencies, if it isn’t authorized by law, it’s prohibited.

If that isn’t enough, the Sunset staff has decided it’s just best to do away with the entire Office of State-Federal Relations as a separate entity, merge it with the governor’s office and allow Governor Perry to hire whatever lobbyists he desires, as summed up in the summaries of two major recommendations in the report:

Abolish the Office of State-Federal Relations as an independent state agency and restructure it within the Office of the Governor.
Authorize the Office to contract with federal-level government relations consultants and establish clear contracting guidelines in statute.

And we know that will work out well, right? I mean, so far, everything the Office of the Governor has done has worked out SO well for Texas in the last 8 years.

Democrats are already speaking out on this issue. In a statement released today, House Democratic Leader Jim Dunnam (R-Waco) noted:

“The Sunset Staff Report found that OSFR lacks authority to contract with lobbyists.  Clearly, Governor Perry illegitimately authorized these lobby contracts.  I again call on the Governor to take responsibility and stop funneling taxpayer dollars to Tom DeLay’s pals.

“Despite the disappointing recommendations of the staff, the members of the Sunset Commission still have the opportunity to stop this unnecessary waste of taxpayer dollars.  The State of Texas already has 32 Congressmen, 2 United States Senators, and the President of the United States representing it.  Governor Perry cannot justify funneling 1.1 million in taxpayer dollars to two useless, Abramoff and DeLay cronies.”

In addition, check out this letter Dunnam sent to Sen. Ken Brimmer, chair of the Sunset Commission, back in January outlining problems with the lobbying and the lobbyists:

The other $180,000 a year lobbyist Governor Perry hired is former chief of staff to Tom DeLay, Drew Maloney. After Mr. Maloney left his position in March 2002, he became a principal in the Republican lobbying firm, The Federalist Group. Shortly after joining the Federalist Group, Maloney was tapped to lead the “Team DeLay” meetings, which consisted of former DeLay staffers.

In June of 2002, Maloney hosted a fundraiser benefitting TRMPAC and ARMPAC at The Homestead, a historic luxury resort in Virginia.

[...]

Mr. DeLay was not the only [R]epublican Congressman or [R]epublican candidate from Texas in whom Mr. Maloney took a special interest. Texas Republicans who took Mr. Maloney’s money include the following Republican Congressmen:Joe Barton, Kenny Marchant, Pete Sessions, John Carter, Randy Neugebauer, John Culberson, Jeb Hensarling, Michael McCaul, Michael Burgess and Louie Gohmert. Mr. Maloney even tried to help defeat a tenured Democrat, Congressman Chet Edwards, by contributing to his unsuccessful opponent, Arlene Wohlgemuth.

That shows what kind of lobbyists the Sunset staff has, through their report, basically endorsed. The state’s current lobbyists couldn’t even pass muster under the “conflicts of interest” section relating to ‘best practices’ on page 9 of the Sunset report!
One more thing of interest in the Sunset staff report is that its own facts counter its ascertation that the state would be better off with a bunch of paid lobbyists. The report notes:

Also, of the 37 states that have a Washington, DC-based office, 13 supplement their staff by using outside consultants to assist in lobbying Congress, and two states use consultants as their only representation.

TWO out of 37? Worse than that, only 13 out of 37 (not even half of all the states with DC presences) use lobbyists in any way, shape, or form, and the Sunset staff calls this an accepted, “common” practice:

In reviewing the State-Fed Office’s use of hiring outside consultants to lobby Congress, Sunset staff found it to be a common practice for various governmental entities in DC.

As an example, it also cites that governmental agencies like DFW airport, the Lower Colorado River Authority, the states’ university systems, two counties and a hand-full of cities from Texas have hired “outside” lobbyists.

There is a big difference, however, in the state hiring lobbyists and some of these agencies hiring lobbyists. I can see a city, when it is forced to compete with the attention of thousands of other cities before all 32 members of the state’s congressional delegation, needing a lobbyist. I can see the LCRA needing a lobbyist to lobby not only Congress but also federal agencies, given the specialized nature of issues they deal with. Same for DFW airport, given that’s probably one of the more prickly issues Dallas and Tarrant County congressmen deal with.

But the entire STATE? We have, as Dunnam said, 32 congressmen, two senators, and a President from Texas. If we still need a lobbyist, we’re in a world of hurt.

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